Wonder of the Word Daily, Day 2

Glimpses of Grace at the Fall (Genesis 3-5)

Transcript

Dannah Gresh: Have you ever heard this idea? The idea says the Old Testament shows us a God of justice. But the New Testament shows us a God of mercy? Well, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says that idea isn’t biblical. God’s mercy is evident from the first few pages of the Bible.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: From the very earliest entrance of sin into the world, we see the evidence of a redeeming God. He was not caught off guard by man’s sin. In eternity past He had devised a plan to rescue, restore, redeem sinners and to make all things new.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. We’re on day two of the year-long series, “The Wonder of the Word.” It’s Tuesday, January 5th, 2027. I’m Dannah Gresh.

The first man and woman had a perfect environment in the Garden of Eden. But when you and I look around, what we see is . . . well, it’s far from perfect. There’s hurt and pain and death everywhere. Today, Nancy shows us why things are this way and why there’s hope.

I hope you have a Bible handy. We’re continuing our year-long journey through God’s Word. Here’s our host, Nancy.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: In the last session, we looked at Genesis chapters 1 and 2, and what a stunningly beautiful, amazing picture we get there! We see so much goodness, blessing, life, beauty, provision, safety, intimacy, peace, shalom. These are the things that characterize what we read in the first two chapters of Genesis.

And then we turn the page, and we get to Genesis chapter 3. There is this jarring, dramatic shift. Genesis 3:1:

“Now the serpent, the serpent was the most cunning [crafty, deceitful] of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made.”

What's this about? Where did this come from? Already, you can tell that there's something changing, something marring the beautiful picture that God has made here.

Well, the New Testament identifies this snake clearly as Satan. For example, we read in Revelation chapter 12 that he is referred to as “the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world” (v. 9).

Now this serpent, Satan, was created by God. Satan, this devil, the one who deceives was one time one of the highest angels serving God in heaven. He went from there to take on the likeness—or the image or possessing—the body of a serpent. What a fall! How did that happen?

Well, this archangel had rebelled, had led an insurrection against God. As a result, he and a third of the angels who are followers of his had been thrown out of heaven. So he goes from archangel to archenemy of God. This creature is determined to bring down the human race with him.

Now, Satan is an invisible spirit, but apparently he possessed the body of a serpent, or somehow took on the form of a serpent, to deceive the woman. Think about how thousands of years later, the Son of God would take on the form of a man to rescue us from the serpent’s deception, and to crush the serpent and bring his power to an end.

Well, the serpent in verse 1 said to the woman:

“Did God really say, ‘You can't eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of a garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” (vv. 1–3)

Now pause for a moment. If you go back to Genesis chapter 2 and check what did God actually say in Genesis 2:16, God said, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden.” God gave broad freedom, and then just a single prohibition, “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . . .” (v. 17). There’s nothing about you shall not touch it. Now, it’s better not to touch it, probably. But he didn't say, “Don't touch it.”

Now, the serpent continues in chapter 3, verse 4:

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

This is something God never intended for us to know experientially. So what is this? What does Satan do in the form of this serpent? He casts doubt on the Word of God. He says, “What God said is not true.” He casts doubt on God's character, and says, “God is not really good or He wouldn't have put this restriction on you.”

And isn't that what he does from that date to this, not just for women, but for men and children in every age? “Did God really say?” There's a doubt about what God said. “No, God didn't mean that. No, He didn't say that.”

People can pick up their Bible and claim to be Bible-believing Christians and say, “But God didn't mean that.” We hear so much of that today. “Why would God put restrictions on your happiness? Why would He tell you there's something you can't do that actually would be good for you? You see, God is not really good. He doesn't have your best interests at heart,” says the serpent.

In verse 6 “the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at.” You know, if it had been crawling with worms, she wouldn't have taken a bite. This is how the enemy works in deception. He makes it look beautiful. It was beautiful.

“[She] saw that it was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for gaining wisdom. So [having seen] she [now] took some of its fruit and ate it. [And then she didn't keep it to herself.] She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” (vv. 6–7)

It sounds like just a hasty remedy trying to rectify something that's gone terribly wrong. And in a moment, everything changes in this world. Everything changes in Adam and Eve, and not for the better. Starting with this chapter, we have the distortion, the dysfunction, the perversion of God's good and beautiful creation. Words and themes that we've not heard to this point, are now introduced. Let's look at several of those.

In Genesis 1 and 2, we read that the man and the woman made one flesh, the woman a helper suitable to the man. But when we get to Genesis 3, we've got hostility and blame between the man and the woman.
In Genesis 1 and 2, God spoke of blessing. In Genesis 3 God speaks a curse—first to the serpent and then to the ground.
In Genesis 2 both the man and his wife were naked, verse 25 tells us, yet felt no shame. But we get to Genesis 3, the man and his wife hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
In verse 10, Adam says, “I heard you in the garden [he says to God], and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” These are new words, new concepts—guilt, shame, fear, and hiding—are introduced—man from woman, and man and woman from God.
In Genesis 1, the earth was to produce vegetation and plants and fruit trees. Now in Genesis 3, we read that the ground produces thorns and thistles. Life is hard.
In Genesis 2, God placed the man and the woman in the garden he had planted. In Genesis 3 it says that God drove them out of the garden.
In Genesis 2, the man and woman were permitted to eat from the tree of life. But in Genesis 3 cherubim angels with a flaming sword were stationed east of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life—no more access to that tree of life.
In Genesis 1 and 2, God breathed life into Adam and Eve. He spoke truth to them. In Genesis 3, Satan deceived them and plunged them into death.

We call this the Fall. And actually, it's not like a fall where somebody just shoved them over the edge. But it's a fall that was chosen by their own willfulness and rebellion and their distrust of God. The consequences were drastic; they were devastating in every way imaginable.

For example, in Genesis 2, labor / work had been a good thing. But now it becomes painful. This is a consequence of the Fall. These consequences that God metes out in Genesis 3 are sex specific. They relate to the particular realms and areas of responsibility that the man and the woman have been entrusted with. So to the woman God says in chapter 3, verse 16: “I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort.” And every woman who's ever had a baby says, “That's true!” That's exactly right. This is a result of the Fall. To the man God says in verse 17 of chapter 3: “You will eat from [the ground] by means of painful labor . . . [The ground] will produce thorns and thistles . . . You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground.” (vv. 17–19) Labor which was a good thing now becomes a painful drudge, a hard thing, laborious, difficult.
The whole concept of alienation and exile we see now in the wake of the Fall. Chapter 3, verse 24: “The LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out.” (vv. 23–24) Here's the God who in the previous chapter had come in the cool of the evening to walk and talk with the man and the woman. Now He drives them out. There's this great gulf, this great chasm between God and mankind. They are now in exile. The fallout of sin is felt on every level: physical, relational, spiritual, and emotional. We will see this unfolding throughout the rest of the Bible and human history.

So the serpent enticed Eve with promises of wisdom and beauty and living forever and being godlike. Everything he said seemed so right. It felt so right, but none of it was true. He deceived her; he lied to her.

And he still lies to us. He promises things he can't possibly give us. He lures us away from the beauty and the goodness that God has created and He intends for us. He wrecks hearts and homes and marriages and relationships. He will mar your past, corrupt your present, and steal future joys that God wanted to bless you with. Sin has created a dire situation in all of the earth and all of the human race.

But from the very earliest entrance of sin into the world, we see the evidence of a redeeming God. He didn't just come up with this in the moment. This was something that for all of eternity past had been in His mind, had been in His heart, had been on the drawing board, so to speak, of heaven. He was not caught off-guard by man's sin. He had devised this plan to rescue and restore and redeem sinners and to make all things new.

Even in this dreadful chapter, we have hints of hope. We'll see them all throughout the Scripture. I'm calling them “glimpses of grace.” In fact, in my notes at several points, I've got the letters GG—just capital G, capital G—glimpses of grace. You might want to note them in your notes, if you're taking notes or in the margins of your Bible—glimpses of grace.

We see several of these in Genesis chapter 3. The first one I've called pursuit. Verse 9 of chapter 3:

“The LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

Do you think God didn't know where Adam and Eve were? Was their tree big enough that they could hide behind it and God couldn't see them? Of course not. But what we're seeing here is that God initiates connection with the man and the woman who have just distrusted and rebelled against Him. They aren't seeking Him, but He seeks them out. He draws them out of their hiding place. He pursues them. That's a glimpse of grace—pursuit.

A second glimpse of grace is promise. In fact, we have the first declaration of the gospel in Genesis chapter 3. Theologians sometimes call that the protoevangelion, the first proclamation of the gospel. Who was it proclaimed to? To Satan himself. He was put on notice. Look at verse 14 of chapter 3:

“The LORD God said to the serpent: [to Satan] . . . “I will put hostility between you and the woman [Women don't like snakes. I think that all started right here . . . and much more than that] and [hostility] between your offspring and her offspring.” The offspring of the woman hinted at here is the coming Redeemer, the Messiah, the Christ. God said, “I'm going to put hostility between your offspring and the seed or the offspring of the woman.” He . . . the woman's offspring . . . the woman's offspring is a He. It's a person. It's a man. “‘He will strike your head . . .’” This will be a fatal blow to Satan. And you, Satan, “‘will strike his heel’” (v. 15). Yes, He'll suffer. Yes, you'll hurt Him. But it's a temporary, momentary loss that took place at the cross. It was overcome by the resurrection.

What's God saying here? Someone is coming who will be born of the offspring of the woman. He will overcome the power of Satan. He will undo and reverse the damage that Satan has done. It's a promise that Satan will be judged, that Satan will be destroyed, and that the seed of the woman will triumph over Satan.

And what follows throughout the whole rest of the Bible, is the conflict between Satan and Christ—the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman—that those who follow the ways of Satan, those who follow the ways of Christ, all the way to the final battle. And I'll tell you, Jesus wins! There's no doubt about it. There's that promise.

Here's a third glimpse of grace in Genesis 3. I've called it purpose. If you look in verse 20, it says that:

“The man named his wife Eve [which literally means life-giver] because she was the mother of all living.”

That is an astonishing verse. You say, “What's astonishing about that?” Well, we know because God said so. Eve deserves to what? To die for her sin. But because of grace, she would become a giver of life.

You see, motherhood is a gift of mercy. It's a gift of grace. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to live herself, and she didn't deserve to give birth to another living creature. And one day, a mother would give birth to a Son who would die to forgive sin, who would conquer death, and would bring eternal life. The woman has a purpose. Humankind—man and woman together—have a purpose to be givers of life. When we deserve to die, God says, “Not only am I going to give you a means by which you can live, but I'm going to make it possible for you to be givers of life to others.”

Here's a fourth glimpse of grace. I've called it provision. Adam and Eve's efforts to clothe themselves and their shame were futile. And then, verse 21 of chapter 3 tells us,

“The LORD God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.”

This is the first recorded act in Scripture that likely required that blood be shed, that innocent animals suffer for guilty sinners.

What does it do? It's a picture. It's a type. It foreshadows the death of Christ, the Lamb of God on the cross. That's a picture of how He would clothe our spiritual shame, our spiritual nakedness, and remove our shame and guilt. God made provision, and it's hinted at in this glimpse of grace.

Here's a fifth one, a glimpse of grace. I've called it protection. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden. You say, “Well, that doesn't sound very much like grace.” But verse 24 says:

“God stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Now that flaming sword represents God's judgment, but even here, there's a glimpse of grace. The cherubim represent His holiness, His presence, but they also represent His mercy. For where do you find them in the Scripture later on, but seated above the mercy seat, in the tabernacle, in the holiest place, where God would give forgiveness to His sinful people.

Having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, had Adam and Eve been allowed to remain in the Garden, to eat the tree of life, they would have lived forever, as sinners. So being driven out proved to be an act of God's mercy, until such a time as the Redeemer would come.

And then we read in Revelation chapters 21 and 22, the end of the story here, that the gate to eternal life is opened for those who believe, to make it possible for us to live in His presence forever. Paradise regained, better than eaten, and to eat of the tree of life to live forever in His presence. It's a glimpse of grace.

Now, with the introduction of sin into the human race, we learn in Scripture that every human being from that day to this is born into sin. It's part of our DNA. And like cancer, sin progresses, it spreads, it metastasizes. Romans 5 in the New Testament tells us that, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin and in this way, death spread to all people [not just one person, but to all people] because all sinned.” (v. 12)

Adam and Eve sinned there in the garden, but that sin metastasized, we were born with it in our DNA. And now sin and death have spread to the whole human race. So as we enter into chapter 4 of Genesis, we see the fruit in the harvest of rebellion. In the very first family, Adam and Eve had a son, and they named him Cain. The word means “acquired,” or “gotten.” And Eve says in verse 1, “I have acquired a man from the Lord” (NKJV). One commentator says that the name Cain just means, “here he is.” I've acquired him, here he is. And it seems that Eve thought that this child, the son, was a seed that God had promised who would fulfill God's promise—the seed of the woman who would be born to the woman must be Cain.

Cain was a farmer. A second son was born. They may have been twins; we don't know for sure. But Abel was a shepherd, and both sons brought offerings, they were made to be worshipers. Cain brought produce from the ground. He was the farmer. Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock. Scripture tells us that God accepted Abel's offering, but He rejected Cain’s.

So why did God accept Abel's offering and reject Cain’s? We don't know all the reasons for sure. But the Scripture tells us in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4, that Abel's gift was offered by faith. You see, apparently God had revealed in some way what would be an acceptable offering. And by faith, Abel obeyed God. His offering was accepted by God. Cain did not exercise faith. He did not obey God; his offering was rejected.

But even here we have another glimpse of grace, put it in your Bible, Genesis chapter 4, verse 7. Here's an opportunity for Cain to repent, to return to the Lord, verse 7 of chapter 4.

“If you do what is right [God says to Cain], won't you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

In this verse we have the first mention in Scripture of sin. And the Scripture teaches us this is the human problem—in a three letter word. The issue was not the environment. The issue is not upbringing. Sin is resident within every man, every woman, every child from birth. And so, Cain rejected God's invitation, His offer of grace. He ends up angry and depressed. And when you reject God's grace, that's where you will end up: angry and depressed, furious, and despondent, some translations say. “He didn't do what was right,” or “He gave into sin.” He let it conquer him rather than him conquering it, so he attacked and killed his brother. We read about it in chapter 4, verse 8. Then God punishes him.

God said, “Okay, here's the consequence.” Sin has consequences. And God says to Cain in chapter 4, verse 11:

“Now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood you have shed. If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” (vv. 11–12)

So here's Cain, who's a gifted and capable farmer, but now God says, “You're not going to have an easy go of it any longer. Sin has wrecked your life. The world, the earth will not give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer. Here God is saying, “It's going to be futile. You're going to strive to get this world to produce and to meet your needs, and you're not going to be able to make it happen.”

Restless wanderers on the earth . . . doesn't that describe the human condition apart from God? And so Cain says in chapter 4, verse 13:

“My punishment is too great to bear! Since you are banishing me today from the face of the earth, and I must hide from your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth.” (vv. 13–14)

Which by the way, he didn't have to do. He chose that pathway. He chose that route, but he's putting this on God now. “Since you're banishing me and I have to hide from You, I have to become a restless wanderer on the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.” That phrase always makes me kind of chuckle a little bit, like, “every person who finds me is going to kill me.” Well, they can only do that once.

But he's just overwrought, distraught. And what we see is that he's remorseful, but not repentant. He grieves the consequences of his sin but not the sin itself. But here's another glimpse of grace, put a GG in your Bible next to verse 15 of chapter 4. God puts a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him. That's grace.

But then we see Cain has set his course. He's decided which way he's going in, and it's not to the Lord. Look at verse 16 of chapter 4.

“Cain went out from the LORD's presence.”

It’s tragic. It's exactly the opposite of what we were made for: to live in His presence. Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord.

Well, he goes on to do some great things as do his offspring . . . He built the first city mentioned in the Bible, his descendants had a lot of impressive achievements. You read about this in verses 16–24 of chapter 4, impressive achievements in the areas of art and music and architecture and industry and culture. But these were self-made men in the line of Cain. They did not acknowledge God. They tried to live away from the presence of God. In an earthly sense, they were able to succeed without God.

But God's plan to redeem the human race was not pushed off track because of Cain’s sin or Cain’s disregard for God. God continued that plan that He'd had through all eternity past, through the birth of another son. You see, Eve may have thought, Cain, he's going to be the one through whom the promise will come. Cain proved not to be that son, but God sent another son. Look at verse 25 of chapter 4. Here's another glimpse of grace.

“Adam was intimate with his wife again, she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for she said, “God has given me another offspring in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.” (vv. 25–26)

What does Scripture say? “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” What had Cain done? He had gone out from the Lord’s presence, but now in the line of Seth, people began to call on the name of the Lord. And so with the birth of Seth, we have a mercy from the Lord, a new line of faith and righteousness. Because you see, God was preserving from one generation to the next, a holy seed through which the Deliverer, the Redeemer, the Messiah, would ultimately come.

And what a contrast there is between the line of Cain and the line of Seth. For example, if you look at the genealogies of Cain, the seventh in the line of Cain was a man named Lamech, who was a polygamist and a murderer. The seventh in the line of Seth was a man named Enoch, who walked with God. We see a distinction made in the world—the way of Cain and the people of God.

Well, quickly, in chapter 5, we see this is one of those passages, it's easy to skip over because there's a long list of names that you can barely pronounce. But we see the line of Adam and Eve's descendants through Seth. And look at this, verse 5 of chapter 5:

“So Adam’s life lasted 930 years; then he died.”

That phrase is repeated eight times in these verses: then he died. He lived, he had children, then he died. He lived, he had children, then he died, one after another. There's a sadness and a sameness to it because man was created to live forever. He was not intended to die. But as God said it would; sin would bring death.

The tragic recurring consequence of sin is seen in this genealogy: then he died. But here's something else we see in this account, that is, glimmers of hope. I see two of them at least. You can just write “glimpse of grace” next to verse 24 of chapter 5. Enoch, the seventh in the line of Seth “walked with God.” I love that. That's what I want to do. That's what I want you to do.

“He walked with God then he was not there because God took him.”

He didn't die. God supernaturally took him apart from physical death. And it says to us, there can be deliverance from death, there's hope for life beyond this sinful, fallen world.

And one more glimpse of grace in chapter 5 verse 28. Lamech (another Lamech) fathered a son, and verse 29:

“He named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us relief from the agonizing labor of our hands, caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.”

In the margin of my Christian Standard Bible, here are the footnotes. It says, “In Hebrew, the name Noah sounds like ‘bring us relief.’” Bring us relief. Perhaps Lamech wondered if his son Noah might be the deliverer God had promised. We'll see tomorrow that Noah would be a type, a symbol of that Deliverer. It was through his line (you read about this Luke chapter 3) that one day would come Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior, who would deliver the world from sin and death and would bring to this tired, weary, suffering, sinning world comfort and relief that the world so desperately needed.

So throughout the Bible we're gonna see two paths, two lines of people, two kinds of people, two different outcomes to people's lives, symbolized by the line or the way of Cain (Scripture talks about that again in the New Testament) and the line and the way of Seth.

Foolish and wise
The way of rebellion and disobedience versus the pathway of obedience
My way versus God's way
The way of self and in-control versus the way of surrendered to His control
The way of judgment versus the way of salvation
Temporal values versus eternal values
The fear of man versus the fear of God

You will see these two dichotomies, these two opposite paths, all the way through the Scripture. They start with the line of Cain and the line of Seth. But thank God through the line of Seth, God's set in motion a plan to redeem and restore the world from sin, to restore everything that sin had broken, to reverse the curse. And the whole rest of this book is the story, the account of how God does just that.

Dannah: I hope you’ll join us as Nancy teaches through page after page. Nancy is in a year-long series called “The Wonder of the Word.” And, she’ll be right back to pray.

If you missed any of that teaching, you can hear it again at ReviveOurHearts.com. When you’re there, you’ll find this teaching in multiple languages, because women from across the globe are studying the Bible with us this year. You can also find Nancy’s teaching on video. For all these resources, visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

Tomorrow, Nancy will teach about Noah and the flood. We will be amazed at God’s grace all over again. Please be back with us next time.

Now Nancy’s back to pray.

Nancy: Thank You, Lord, for the wonder of Your Word and the wonder of Your grace. Even in the midst of deep, great, hideous, heinous sinfulness and fallenness, You are showing grace, You are showing mercy. You are restoring us, renewing us, redeeming us, pursuing us, providing for us, giving provision and protection and purpose for our lives. Thank You, Lord. We bless You for Your grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB unless otherwise noted.